Confirmed: No title sponsor for 2017 season…
Do you want to know the most wonderful thing about Beach Grit? It’s that people love to share rumors with us so that we will share them with the world. It is a harmonious system because the whistleblowers get to remain anonymous and we get a great story, while still being able to pull the “don’t shoot the messenger” card.
In that light, just thirty minutes ago, the Beach Grit messages were infiltrated by an anonymous informant who asked, “You guys onto the Samsung pulling out of WSL coconut wireless news yet?
What-wha-wha-whaaat? No, we weren’t! But now we are and thank you very much for that.
Next comes a reconnaissance email to the WSL’s VP of Communications, Dave Prodan. I asked Dave if he could confirm or deny the claims of our tipster. I had very little hope that he’d reply, let alone affirm their veracity.
Then, boom! March 1st to Christmas morning. Dave replies, saying:
That’s correct. Samsung will not be the title sponsor for the Championship Tour in 2017. The WSL’s official statement is, “Samsung has been a great partner for the surfing community over the past three years, elevating the sport to new heights and honoring the community’s heritage. We thank them for their partnership and look forward to an exciting 2017 season. The WSL is excited about upcoming announcements in the commercial space. More to come when available.”
I asked Dave if that enthusiasm meant they’d found a title sponsor replacement, but he reported that there will be no title sponsor for the 2017 Men’s and Women’s Championship Tour.
Oh, they also haven’t found a full-time replacement for Speaker yet.
So what does this mean? Sure, the League can finally rid themselves of those pocket-dwelling hand grenades and cut their insurance costs by half. But, it mostly means that the WSL, who was supposedly already losing a lot of money, is now going to be losing a whole lot of money.
Without a title sponsor, it seems improbable that the WSL will be able to persist as is. And as much as we joke about their geeky corporate demeanor, ridiculous jersey schemes and petty infringement laws, we need the WSL. Or at least we definitely want it playing in the background while at work.
So remember, joke all you want, but know that we, the viewers, will be the ones who suffer if the WSL goes under.
I’ve got it!
1.) WSL owns Kelly’s pool
2.) As far as we know, the contract price to buy a pool doesn’t include Bull Sharks
3.) Kelly calls for a hysterical shark cull even though he quickly back peddles
4.) Shark fear grips middle America
5.) WSL builds wave pools for fear gripped middle Americans
6.) $$$ flows like honey
7.) Surfing thus becomes permanent Olympic sport
8.) Ziff and Kelly marry in a quiet ceremony on Maui with Paul Speaker standing in as a flower girl
I don’t think the WSL is that incompetent and hasn’t thought about this… But they need to implement viewing packages. $15 per CT event like PPV. $15/4 days = $3.75 a day. Most adults spend more per day, every day all year for a fucking cup of coffee. Or purchase all 11 CTs for $110. Included in that CT bundle are all 10 of the 6000 QSs as incentive to pay the full sum up front. And I dunno, add another $20 annually to catch the freestanding Women’s CTs. Add another $30 to include all the big wave events. Say All-Inclusive package is $150 annually and they can get a conservative estimate of 100k subscribers worldwide. That’s a $15m base to start before individual contest purchases. And they can be damned sure if the forecast calls for 12ft Chopes or 30ft Peahi, hundreds of thousands more would plunk down $15 for even one or two days of carnage. If you’re that broke ass, get 5 of your friends to drop $3 each and have a viewing party.
Hopefully a coup d’état and someone lets redbull through the back gate..
Let me break open the piggy bank. there are some coins. i’ll take it off their hands.
i have IDEAS!
let me at it.
“…we need the WSL. Or at least we definitely want it playing in the background while at work.” -Amazing
Dave Prodan’s press release…beautiful. Just needed “integrate”, “empower”, “synergistic” and “diverse” for a full card at Bullshit Bingo.
The entire concept of what Pro Surfing is needs to change to meet modern day realities. The same fundamental concept has been in place for 20+ years but the world has changed.
As a viable business it cannot succeed in its current form. High expense/Low return is not what investors are looking for.
heavy
I think it should unfortunately read “when the WSL goes under” not if….
Makes the former NFL and WSL douche bag Mr Paul Speaker look like a corporate genius by jumping ship prior to the 2017 tour kicking off…… Oh wait, he must have known the writing was on the wall before he jumped. Had to. Read his resignation statement one more time for fun and see what a duplicitous piece of crap he was/is. Samsung were rumoured to have paid two fifths of fuck all for naming rights anyway, so no great financial loss. I tip FORMER to put up a couple of black tees and skinny leg jeans for Most Improved and Best Wipeout at Snapper as the tour descends into Boardrider Club level insignificance. Someone, for fuck’s sake, start a “rebel” tour now!
Mate, he had his exit strategy in place when he signed his contract! He’s not a complete moron, he would have known from the outset it was a dead duck! And talking of ducks, he would just quack like one until he saw the writing on the wall!
I agree he knew it was a dead duck from the outset but I strongly disagree that he wasn’t a complete moron…
You only have to look at Speaker’s work history to see he has only held positions for 2-3 years anywhere. This is not completely unexpected.
Yeah, how the hell does he have a house in Malibu? Does he really make that much from commentating? Or is it from being a body double for a famous day time talk show host?
no argue with me shoot me down , just because the WSL gravy train is running out of gravy , will we see the tour stripped back to just a roast lump of meat??
I hate the WSL but not really the people (Paul Speaker the exception)
What I hate more then shitty venues, inane commentating, loser rounds, dubious judging etc etc …
What I hate more is the WSL trying to monetise a comfy fluffy safe Disney family friendly surfing product. Barf
This is a good time for the Wsl to adopt an AFL/ UFC style pay-per-view model. Sell to the dedicated fans and let us love/hate the thing like we do. Stop ignoring us and aiming for Middle America that doesn’t give a damn. Be proud we’re not like Middle America again.
1. Sell 100,000 annual memberships with Standard Access for $100usd each.
That’s $10 mil US.
Give HD Live stream access to all events.
Premium level access extra $$.
2. Sell Pay Per View for single comps at $100 each, full event. Maybe 10,000 for popular venues? That’s another $1 mil per event.
3. Sell sponsorship of events on top. Maybe another $500k per event. Plus local government input.
The UFC sells to their core market, and makes them pay what they will to see what they want. This brings us back to the events and surfers.
Events in bad waves wont generate pay per views, just like bad cards at the UFC. So follow the money and give people what they want- entertaining waves and surfing. Pipe, Teahupoo, Indo somewhere, Mexico, Eddie Aikau, insert exciting locations here… Change it up every year searching for the events people are willing to pay to see.
Lean the process- trim the number of surfers, no loser rounds, make it shorter time, higher impact.
If the tour has to go back to 5 holy-shit-balls amazing events per year; generating $2.5 million per event- BUT profitable in the first year, isn’t that a good thing?
Then slowly build it up from there.
The Fertitto brothers paid $2 million for the UFC in 2001, and last year sold out for $4 billion. In 2001 it was only being watched by the tiny core market.
possibly, but 5 events a year pretty much damns any kind of Title race to irrelevancy due to lack of momentum…..and that’s all they’ve got as a selling Point at the moment.
I’d reckon they can’t have any kind of legit Title race with any less than 10 events. Too long between events and the whole thing drifts into apathy.
Agreed. Can’t imagine an F1 driver winning a world championship after competing in only five races. I also think the only companies who will get a reasonable return on their sponsorship investment in the current format are surf related companies. The lie that Speaker constantly repeated about hugely inflated numbers of web viewers obviously came home to roost. Samsung aren’t stupid. They want to sell phones. They don’t give a fuck who buys them. Surfers, Netballers, they just want a return on the dollars spent. Clearly, they didn’t get it. Someone needs to shake up the format but it won’t happen in 2017. By then, it might be too late and surfing ends up like skate did when the boom ended. Imagine Gabby putting on paid demos in the Rio Shorey before returning to the beach to wax his back, sack and crack…
True about the F1 tour, although a UFC fighter is champion of the world with one fight.
And totally agree about the sponsors- so let’s go back to surf brands and stop trying to pull in mainstream audience and $$$. They don’t want it. We do.
longtom, I see your point- in a long year with 10+ events, the title race becomes important to keep people interested. In 2016 Wsl seemed to market the title race as the most interesting point of an otherwise bland tour. It was the only reason I watched hours of Portugal and France. But surfing isn’t cycling.
If the tour was 5 banger events, in epic waves, you’d come for the waves, mind blowing barrels etc. And at the end, quick as anything there would be a champion.
My five events are Pipe (Jan/Feb), Teahupoo, Gland, Mexico, Cloudbreak. Fuck a bunch of City beaches. That would produce a champion.
I don’t know. I’d love to see a UFC type “heavyweight” World title fight with the top 6 Surfers, decided over multiple surfs during one swell at Chopes. Title race be damned… I’m bored shitless, put it all on the line.
I agree, I think there is a viable model there based on UFC matchups in premium locations over multiple rounds.
You are TRIPPING if you think any cunt will pay 100 bucks for a single event stream
I just posted a similar model before reading all the comments. $100 per individual event is too much imho. Like I commented, I’m certain that the WSL is not that incompetent and hasn’t had very similar packages and ideas. What I think they lack are the tech abilities to implement on such a scale. You need to have all your shit in order for that to happen. No feed freezes, no problems with accessing the feed through login codes etc. otherwise it could lead to one big clusterfuck of crediting back people who had shitty feeds or no feed at all. I suspect the infrastructure is not there.
hopefully there’s still enough money in the Ziff bank to keep the commentary team together
Top five contenders for title sponsor:
1.) Bed, Bath & Beyond
2.) Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
3.) Former
4.) Wikipedia
5.) Chuck E. Cheese
You reckon they’d shorten “the Former WSL Championship Tour” to “The ASP WCT”?
I’m thinkin WaveStorm could fit the bill?! They must be loaded. J.O.B. won’t compete because of a CatchSurf conflict of interest dilemma. Instead of organic salads, sushi, or whatever the hell they serve in the competitors lounge, there will be a CostCo Lounge complete with plastic picnic tables, serving hot dogs, pizza, and churros
Still don’t know why they don’t charge a fee to watch. I pay $90 to MLB to watch baseball each season. I’d surely pay as much as…$10 to watch the WSL season.
ah but would you pay to watch the QS? Or round two in Rio? Or round two fcuken anywhere?
exactly, they need to reform the product if they want people to pay. It’s still designed to draw maximum people to the beach for maximum time to benefit sponsors and local businesses.
They need a total rethink.
I’ll see your round two in Rio and raise you one round https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
For $10 / year I’ll watch the first round and the finals at Snapper, Bells (I actually like that event), Cloudbreak, and maybe Pipe.
If Dave Prodan doesn’t win the Nobel Prize for Literature, Category: Magic Realism there is no fucking justice in the this World.
He’s wasted in that job.
he’ll be the last man standing. Switching off the lights and making it sound like it’s the most glorious day in Pro Surfing history.
Blame Noa. Fuck the WSL!
$30million a year is fuck all to people like Ziff. Seriously, he would spend more on his jet. And/or yacht. It costs more to have your company’s logo on the rear wing of an F1 car.